Suddenly, there is a new goal for Padraig Harrington.
Already a winner of the European Tour order of merit in 2006, and currently topping the table in Europe again this year, the 35-year-old believes a hot streak in the upcoming FedEx Cup series could enable him to also top the money list in America.
Harrington, on a week's family break in Orlando, will restart tournament play at next week's Barclays Classic at Westchester - where he won in 2005 and finished runner-up to Sergio Garcia in 2004 - which is the first of the final four tournaments in the new play-off system designed to add extra spice, a la the basketball and baseball play-offs, to the PGA Tour.
Ideally, Harrington, who normally strings a maximum of three successive events together, would prefer a week off. But he will definitely play in all four: the Barclays, followed by the Deutsche Bank in Boston, the BMW Championship in Cog Hill near Chicago and, finally, if he qualifies, the Tour Championship in Atlanta.
"I like to play three tournaments in a row, and that would be it. The ideal scenario would be to play the first two, then take a week off, then play the last.
"That would be ideal for me. But the play-offs certainly give someone like me a good chance of winning the US Tour's order of merit. If I get hot for four weeks, I can go out there and win two of the events. To actually win the order of merit under the old system, you'd have to win maybe eight times which is not going to happen. There is a number of players definitely feel this play-off system definitely gives them a shout at winning," said Harrington, 20th in the FedEx Cup rankings and assured of places in the field for the first three tournaments. Only the top-30 after Cog Hill make it to the finale in Atlanta.
He added: "I don't mind playing four events back to back. It is not the end of the world. But I think under the circumstances with all that has gone on in the last couple of weeks for me since the Open win at Carnoustie, I won't be going into them as fresh and strong as I would other events."
Harrington, who remains at number six in the world rankings, faces a hectic run of tournaments over the autumn, with the defence of his European Tour order of merit uppermost. After his upcoming four-week stint in the States, he will play the Seve Trophy, defend the Dunhill Links, play the HSBC World Matchplay, the Grand Slam of Golf in Bermuda and the Volvo Masters, before heading to Asia for the HSBC Champions tournament in China and defending the Dunlop Phoenix in Japan.
His final event of the year, after the birth of his second child (wife Caroline is due in late November), will be the Target World Challenge in California before Christmas.
Incidentally, Harrington remains top of the European Tour order of merit, with England's Justin Rose - who plans a packed late-season schedule in Europe starting with the Seve Trophy at The Heritage in Co Laois in late-September up to the Volvo Masters in Valderrama - now his main challenger in second place.
Rose, like Harrington, is playing the FedEx series before returning to Europe for a run that takes in the Seve Trophy, the Dunhill Links, the World Matchplay, the Portuguese Masters and the Volvo Masters.
Rose's 12th place finish in the US PGA at Southern Hills was further confirmation of his improved form this season. "In the majors this year, obviously I'm a better player. The biggest improvement has been mentally . . . there are a lot of times you're tested in the majors patience wise more than anything else."
